sheep

the black sheep (of the family)

someone who is thought to be a bad person by the rest of their family. My father was the black sheep - he ran away at 16 to become an actor and his parents never forgave him.

See also: black

I might as well be hanged/hung for a sheep as a lamb.

something that you say when you are going to be punished for something so you decide to do something worse because your punishment will not be any more severe. I'm going to be late for work anyway, so I think I'll go to the shop for a paper. I might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.

See also: hung, lamb, might, well

make sheep's eyes at someone (old-fashioned)

to look at someone in a way that shows that you love them or are attracted to them. Ken's been making sheep's eyes at his ex-girlfriend all night.

See also: eye

separate the sheep from the goats (British, American & Australian, British & Australian)

to choose the people or things of high quality from a group of mixed quality. I'll look through the application forms and separate the sheep from the goats.

See also: from, goat, separate

a wolf in sheep's clothing

someone who seems to be pleasant and friendly but is in fact dangerous or evil. My next boss, on the surface very warm and charming, proved to be something of a wolf in sheep's clothing.

See also: wolf

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a wolf in sheep's clothing

someone or something that seems to be good but is actually bad. The financial advisor we hired turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing who stole from the people he promised to help.

See also: wolf